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Education
Written by Bhaeravi   

Rising Sun' promises bright future

This model centre of learning based on Neo-Humanist Education is a source of hope for all those young minds who were born with darkness all around them.

This is one place, which can definitely be called the 'temple of learning'. Here, education not just means learning the contents of the various books but learning all those skills, which will help a child fulfil all his dreams.

A few miles from Belmiro Braga, a little city in the state of Minas Gerais just over the border from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a small village called Vila San Fransisco. It was established in the 1980s. And, in this village is a little school named the 'Rising Sun'.

Just as the rising sun denotes a new beginning, this school too, has adopted a new teaching model based on the Neo-Humanist education. It aims to instill a sense of worth and purpose among the poor and needy children of the village.

This school has also brought about a sense of stability in the lives of the people of this area. This because, the village was a result of the displacement of several land workers. To avoid employees taking possession of land by usucapi=C3=A3o, a Brazilian constitutional civil law, employers expelled waves of land workers from their family farms so that they could not build tenure, which would give them automatic ownership of the land.

With no place to go, these displaced persons poured into a section of land without a registered owner. Vila Sao Francisco appeared on the map devoid of any planning or any infrastructure with the multitude of social problems, lack of a school for children being one of them. To study, children had to walk at least six miles over dusty roads.

The story changed with the arrival of a group of followers of an Indian philosopher named Shrii Ananda Murti, founder of the Centre for Yoga and Meditation, Ananda Marga, that was created in 1955 in India. Ananda Marga has branches in 150 countries. In Rio de Janeiro, the group's office is in Copacabana.

In early 1990, Dada Dharmadevananda, a sanyasi monk and one of the most senior of Baba's acharya teachers, pooled funds from his network of local and international financial resources and bought property, to create a working farm for spiritual retreats right beside Vila Sao Francisco.

This was a completely undeveloped area cut out of a large beef cattle ranch with no electrical lines, only one dirt road (which is now paved), no land line telephones, or suitable housing structures.

A farm was bought by 30 people, who donated one hundred hectares especially for social projects. This children's school is one of them. This changed the landscape considerably and it was due to group's involvement in social service projects that the Rising Sun primary school came into existence. Baba personally posted the first rector caretaker for the newly named Ananda Kirtana unit.

The school curriculum calls for the wholesome development of a child. This is a model of education, especially for the poor children, who live with no hope and no future. The Neo-Humanist education (NHE), aims to create a balance between the emotional, intuitive, creative, and spiritual aspects of a child's personality. Care is taken to create an ideal learning environment through art, play, stories, songs and various other activities. Activities like backyard gardening, stretching, breathing and yoga form an integral part of daily lessons. The effort is to balance the academia and physical work. The teachers, too, are not just concerned with the academic aspect but also act as communicators between the children and their parents and also their community.

"As per the NHE philosophy, it is not enough to learn only Portuguese, Maths, etc. The challenge is to help childen grow into good human beings. We strive to strengthen the ethical and moral foundations inherent in a human being so that these children grow up physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. This also enables them to identify and work on their creative faculties, which forms th basis of ultimate happiness," says Soma (Sandra Brys), a founder of the Rising Sun school.

In the beginning, the school functioned in a small old building, which could barely be called a structure, with no electricity. It relied on the goodwill of volunteer teachers. "The children sat down, had no toys, ate on little plates over pieces of wood," says Dheera Gomes, a resident in the village who decided to roll up sleeves and work with the project. "We would accept everything that the people offered us. We used to ask for waste from photocopy shops. My three children studied here."

In 2003, the then-resident rector, initiated the construction of a new building with electricity and it was completed in four months three rooms, a kitchen, office, and two toilets, one for the boys and one for girls. Four years ago the space was finally inaugurated. The school has its own food gardens, playground, and classrooms equipped with all sorts of learning toys. Maintained primarily with monthly donations from "godparents", people from Ananda Marga in Rio, the Rising Sun has changed its face considerably over the past 18 years.

At 7 a.m., the students begin the day with the "circle of love". They sing mantras, then practice yoga and meditation. Then comes the breakfast, then educational games, and also the conventional disciplines of Maths, History, and Geography. At 11 a.m., a vegetarian lunch is prepared from the organic crops planted in the school garden, by the children.

According to Soma, a graduate of the NHE Independent Study Programme, available through the Gurukula University in Kolkata, the essence of NHE lies in yoga and meditation, serving as keys to increasing the concentration of children. And the vegetarian food aids to develop ecological awareness and respect for life. Estefany, one of the 4-year-old students, says she does not like to eat "dead animals". She prefers the vegetarian dishes prepared by the school cook, Auntie Preta. Even at home she does not eat meat any more.

The activities of the Rising Sun are not confined to the schoolroom. According to Dheera, the teachers visit their children's homes, proposing activities for the parents that involve the new world of the children and create positive links between each child, their parents, and teachers. Besides, one of the main focus of the work outside the classrooms is environmental education. In San Francisco village, clean water is a daily challenge as there is no sewage system. So, children learn to keep the tap closed, to avoid polluting the local river as such practices are critical for the very survival of the village.

In general, our public schools do not work for values like love, environment care etc. Many of these children come from problem families, sometimes with alcoholic fathers and mothers who are victims of domestic violence. This humanist basement is valuable and indispensable in such circumstances. I can say with the Rising Sun, the children began to educate their parents," Dheera says. "Mothers tell us that the children come home and ask all those things that they get in the school. This project helped me a lot personally. When my kids started to study here, I did not know anything. I learned how to relate with the environment and with other people by seeing my kids learn."

This type of education is so effective, it is getting the attention of the Brazil state education system. Another NHE primary school, a private owned AMURT-registered school located in Petropolis and run by one of the Ananda Kirtana Margis, was recently incorporated into the state public school system, allowing better pay for the teachers and a new building that has room for many more students.

The managers of the Rising Sun have ambitious plans for the new year. In 2009, they will begin in Vila Sao Francisco, a NHE centre with the goal to train more teachers. Since last year, there is a new director of the school, Triveni, who is involved with all aspects of running the MU.

Another proposed plan is the implementation of a teaching technique called "Brain Gym" (ginastica cerebral). Soma received her accreditation certificate at the University of California, making her one of the few instructors in Brazil, and wants to implement this technique whose goal is to enable the intelligence through the synchrony of movement. This is also the bedrock of the Montessori method philosophy of NHE, always linking physical movement with intellectual concepts for the true balance of the brain. 'Brain Gym' goes even further. The 26 exercises of Brain Gym help to restore the integration of the right and left brain hemispheres and of the three dimensions of the triune brain , which consists of the R-complex in the centre (muscles, balance and autonomic functions like heartbeat and breathing), the limbic system, which is wrapped around brain one (source of emotions and instincts), and the neocortex, the outside surface interacting with the other brains (higher-order thinking skills, reason, speech, and sapience). Instructors who understand and practice yoga asanas and acupressure find a natural partnership with Brain Gym as a teaching tool.

The school, has therefore, set an example in holistic education, which earlier was accessible only to the kids of the elite class. Neo-Humanist education promises to take it the lowest strata of the society, thus, strengthening the foundation of the social structure.